


Something Cold

by Zenithyl



Series: Yu Long [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU - no war, Adorable, Animagus, Animagus Harry Potter, Carp!Harry, Feeding, Feeding Koi!Harry, Fluff, Gen, Hogwarts Third Year, Incidentally feeding Nagini too, Koi!Harry, Politician Tom Riddle, Professor Tom Riddle, Summer, Summer between second and third year, Summer break, Yu Long, watermelon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-12 03:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4462994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zenithyl/pseuds/Zenithyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something cold, something sweet, sometimes messy, sometimes neat, and is coloured red and green; watermelon is what a koi loves best.</p><p>Or: how koi-animagus Harry Potter talked professor-slash-politician Tom Riddle into feeding him watermelon on a hot summer day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, both RenderedReversed and I have been working on a new part for Yu Long each, but we both got stuck during writing. T_T  
> I, however, had this little piece already planned for a while and though I originally wanted to wait until I got my current Yu Long oneshot done... I figured I'd be best to just write and post it now.
> 
> This little fic takes place in the summer of third year. Note that Harry is about 1.3 ft long at this point in time.  
> (For those that do not use this metric system: that's about 40 cm.)
> 
> Enjoy.

"How again did I get talked into doing this?"

Harry, that smug brat whom happened to be a fish right now, just twitched his tail to send a splash of water in Tom's direction.

 _You promised_ was very much implied.

A glance in Nagini's direction confirmed that the snake would be of no help, busy as she was with investigating the water of the pond. The water being cold and, well... _wet_ , did not seem to do anything to deter her from nosing at it.

"Why did I let myself be convinced to do this?" Tom sighed. He would deny until his dying days that he was internally bemoaning ever making this promise.

Harry seemed to be at the end of his tolerance for Tom's stalling tactics at that point, and made an energetic jump that brought him out of the water before falling back in, creating another splash aimed in Tom's general direction.

"Potter," Tom grumbled. "Cease that waterthrowing or I won't give you this." The professor indicated the big, green, perfectly ripe watermelon he had been holding onto for the past two hours.

The koi in the pond didn't seem to have heard him, but it _did_ happen to stop sending water over the edge in every direction. It set petulant eyes on the human sitting on a bench nearby, soundlessly demanding its due.

"You brat," the professor said fondly.

The Head of Slytherin house had found the third-year Gryffindor in Diagon Alley that summer, after having heard from the minister that Harry'd apparently 'blown up his aunt' and subsequently run away from home. That it wasn't really a 'home' was something Tom understood, but there wasn't anything he could do to secure a permanent solution for the situation.

So, he had settled for putting the teen up with a room from the Leaky Cauldron with the stipulation that he wouldn't go beyond Diagon Alley. (“I don't want you wandering off into Muggle London, all right? Keep to Diagon Alley. And you're to be back here before dark each night.”)

The pond in question was actually located in the backyard of the Leaky Cauldron, something that neither the professor nor the student had known existed. It was small, but well-secluded and the pond itself took up most of the space.

It was the perfect place on this hot a day to be making good on a promise made the year before.

Tom stood up for a moment so he could float the battered wooden bench closer to the edge of the water. No matter his apparent nonchalance, he took great care with the watermelon when he sat down again on the hard bench.

“Shall we get started, then?” he asked rhetorically.

The resulting frenzy had him working hard to suppress an eye roll. The koi was pressed up against the edge of the pond closest to the professor in a heartbeat, Nagini not far behind—though she kept to dry, solid ground.

“What are you doing?” Tom asked his fickle familiar when she wound her way up his legs, seemingly aiming for the big green fruit resting in his lap. “Why would you want this too?”

“I want to eat it,” she hissed back, undeterred.

Tom felt an headache coming on. Koi-crazy was apparently contagious and even his snake wasn’t immune.

“Fine,” he sighed. “But release me first. You are in my way.”

Sulking, she dropped herself down and curled up as close to the water as she could, one coil and even her tail hanging over the edge into the cold water. Next to Nagini, Harry stuck his head through the surface of the water, continually opening and closing his mouth as if gasping for breath.

It was an adorable sight, seeing these two staring at the human with the watermelon, waiting for food. Tom didn’t even bother trying to stall any longer because he just couldn’t muster the heartlessness for it anymore.

He just took up his wand and cut the sweet, juicy, perfect watermelon into neat square pieces, which he then sent into the water, one by one.

The koi happily started munching on the red-and-green cubes floating in the pool, nibbling chunks of red off at a steady pace. Tom’s teeth felt like they were about to curl from the heavy sweet smell that the water gave off, but he would never embarrass himself by throwing up, let alone for such an undignified reason.

In an attempt to distract himself from the smell, Tom focused on Nagini instead of the single fish he was in the process of feeding.

In the few moments Tom had been busy with the koi and the melon, the snake had gone off into the water, an outrageously uncharacteristic decision on her part that Tom honestly had not expected.

Nagini was _not_ a water snake, or even a swamp snake, she should not know how to swim, let alone how to keep herself from drowning. It was a miracle in itself that she had decided to dive after the fruity blocks in the first place, seeing as she wasn’t a fruit snake either.

But, somehow, Nagini was swimming well enough to get her share of the watermelon in the water—clumsily, yes, but her movements were not entirely ineffective.

Harry seemed to take pity on the poor snake and began to nudge every third or fourth piece her way for easier reach. Nagini, proud creature that she was, did not like being coddled and sent them right back.

It devolved into some bizarre variation of tennis mixed with football and water polo that ended when Nagini began to sink because she was too tired to keep herself above water and Harry quickly diving after the other animal to save her from drowning.

The snake eventually gave up on refusing the koi’s help and settled herself in several loose coils around the fish to go back to eating the watermelon pieces. She was smart enough to arrange herself in such a way that it wasn’t uncomfortable for Harry and didn’t impede his movement or sight.

Tom gave in to the urge to roll his eyes over the silliness of both animals.

The rest of the feeding time went by without further strangeness, and soon enough all that was left from the big watermelon were the green bits of skin scattered across the water of the pond.

When Nagini had clambered her way out of the water and back into the sun, Tom eyed the satisfied mid-sized koi left behind in the pond.

“Happy now?”

The next moment he knew, Tom had been knocked to the ground by a very enthusiastic teen in wet clothes, who ended up sitting on Tom’s chest and was shortly in the process of hugging the life out of the man with his characteristic single-minded determination.

As much as he tried to breathe, Tom also fought not to smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Feeding Nagini too was not my original plan, but she snuck in anyway and I have to admit that I like the end result...


End file.
